August 18, 2022 at 1:58 p.m.
State candidates make campaign stop in Rhinelander
State candidates make campaign stop in Rhinelander
Kaul jump-started Friday's event by announcing that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had that morning terminated an investigation into the 2020 election led by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
The assembled crowd reacted with cheers and applause.
He also referenced what he referred to as Republican attempts to limit the powers of the governor and attorney general via lawsuits brought early in their terms.
"Despite the fact that Republicans tried to interfere with the governor's ability to do his job, with my ability to do my job, and to deliver the promises that we made, I am so proud to stand here before you today, 3 1/2 years later, to be able to say on issue after issue we have delivered for working families in Wisconsin," Kaul said.
All three candidates touched on a wide array of topics including voting rights, access to abortion care, expansion of broadband, road improvements, the state's low unemployment rate, school safety and protection of public education.
Kaul also mentioned the lawsuit he and Evers filed recently against a number of PFAS manufacturers, marketers and sellers. He said the goal of that action is "to make sure when PFAS gets cleaned up out of our water, it's not taxpayers who are footing the bills it's the companies that made huge profits.."
Two City of Rhinelander wells have been offline since 2019 due to PFAS contamination.
All three speakers stressed their opponents - businessman Tim Michels, former Fond du Lac county prosecutor Eric Toney and state Sen. Roger Roth - want to take the state backward, in the case of access to abortion care back to 1849.
"Voters are going to have a very clear choice and the choice boils down to this, do we want to go forward, do we want to build on the progress we have made or do we want to let Republicans take us backwards," Kaul said. "When I say backwards, I'm not talking about backwards a few days or backwards a few years, I'm talking about backwards to a fundamentally different era."
For his part, Evers said the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade caused his seven granddaughters to become "second-class citizens overnight". He also noted that the 1849 abortion law in place now that Roe has been overturned, was passed just one year after Wisconsin became a state, indicating it was a high priority for the men who were in charge at the time.
"There were no women in the room," he noted, referring to the workings of state government in 1849.
Kaul, in particular, also decried attacks on the state's election workers in furtherance of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
"The truth is that our election officials - and these are our friends and neighbors by the way - around the state who are running these elections, they do phenomenal work," he said.
Rodriguez, who has a background in public health, spoke about gun violence prevention among other topics.
"It's personal for me and I think it's personal for many of you," she said. "I have two kids. I have to drop them off at school. And I know if I ask many of you, the same thought goes through your head when you drop your kids off at school, "what might happen to today?'"
She went on to note that one of her children shares a birthdate with one of the children killed during the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012. She said she keeps a photo of the slain child in her phone "because I want to remember who and what we are fighting for."
Evers ended his speech by thanking the crowd for their enthusiasm and urging them to knock on doors and talk to their neighbors about what's at stake in November.
Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].
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